Free Govern by Viola Grace

Chapter One
     
     
    Leo was exhausted. With the last bit of energy, she recalled the final wave of bots and closed the ship. The Gold Fairy had a rendezvous with one of her sisters and it was going to take a bit of enthusiasm to get there on time. Unfortunately, Leo had always been short on enthusiasm.
    Once she was sure that the decontamination protocols had kicked in and her little beasties were all clear, she encouraged the Fairy to take off. “Come on, Goldie. Let’s go out to play with Blue .”
    They gunned the engines together and lifted off the world that was being considered as a super-being penal colony. The planet didn’t have a name yet, but she sent in her report anyway—enough water, green space and atmosphere to maintain a large population with plenty of unoccupied space around it to reduce the chance of unexpected visitors or escape attempts.
    The rendezvous with the Blue Fairy was their next stop, so Leo sent them to the jump site and pulled them through. It was six hours until the next jump, and Leo needed a nap.
    “I am going to crash for a while, pardon the phrasing.”
    A delicate chime rang with encouragement.
    Smiling briefly, Leo opened the supports that kept her upright in her station and staggered free. “Thanks for that. Wake me at the next jump site. I will be grouchy, but I will be here.”
    A medium to low tone chimed, and Leo laughed.
    “I know. I am always grouchy, but I will be worse than usual. How long has it been since I slept?”
    A set point of chimes in different tones rang out. “Thirty-nine hours. Huh. That is a record even for me.”
    Leo was glad that it was only a few steps to her room. She was completely flattened when she hit the sheets. She felt the stroke of the fabric against her cheek before darkness swamped her. Damn, she was always so tired.
     
    The heavy bong woke her. The weight of the noise ran through her joints, and she staggered up with a groan. Sounds worked on her all too well. Her only pleasure when she was growing up had become her ship’s way of bossing her around. Music called her to eat, told her when to sleep and even spanked her when her behaviour was a little too surly.
    Everyone thought she could govern bots and mechanicals, but the Gold Fairy was both her charge and her boss.
    A quick solar shower, a check of the suit’s systems and a baseline for her pain rating and she was ready to eat and get back to work.
    Music filled the ship as she ate, and the Dhemon music soothed her. They really had excellent composers away from earth. Even the Enjel music was agreeable, though the Azon stuff was a little bit too passionate for her. The Nyal composers were hit and miss. After her meal, she stretched, twisted and worked her body into something resembling supple before she stepped into her control station.
    “Two more jumps and you will be chatting with your sister while I get a new passenger.”
    Leo pulled them through the first jump, and the ship moved swiftly to the next jump point.
    Dispatcher Nitza contacted her. “How are you doing, Govern?”
    “Oh, can’t complain. What’s up, Nitza?”
    “Your passenger. Ambassador Wikkio is in cold sleep on board the Blue Fairy . We need him brought aboard and hauled to Gah-tosh.”
    “All right. What is he going for?”
    “He is going to negotiate for a deep-system satellite to be located in their space, so we need this to go well.”
    Govern knew where this was heading. “You want me to stow the attitude.”
    “Please. You are to act as his bodyguard while he is travelling. He needs it. His appearance brings on either hostility or extreme affection.”
    That was intriguing. “What causes that?”
    Nitza laughed, “You are going to have to see it to understand it.”
    With that cryptic statement, her dispatcher disconnected.
    Govern grumbled, shifted her body slightly and leaned back in the supports that had been sculpted to hold her. She had spent far too much time in her life sitting. Flying